1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup device provided with a lens barrel and a display monitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a video camera is provided with a shooting lens integrally fixed to a camera body, and a viewfinder which enables a shooter to check an object. In addition, such a video camera is often provided with a display monitor so that the object can be easily checked.
This display monitor is configured to be manually rotatable in an arbitrary direction. This enables the shooter to turn the display monitor to a direction in which the shooter can monitor the display monitor while shooting, and to perform the shooting while watching a shot image being displayed on the display monitor. Moreover, turning the display monitor toward the object enables the object himself to check the shot image. In addition, when the display monitor is not used, the display monitor can be closed in a form in which the display monitor forms a side surface of the camera body.
Generally, the object to be shot by the video camera may often be a moving object, and the shooter has to move the video camera in response to motion of the object when the shooter shoots the moving object. However, in the case of performing the shooting while watching the display monitor, the display monitor also moves in response to the move of the video camera, which causes a screen of the display monitor to deviate from the eye gaze of the shooter so that the shooter may not be able to check the shot image, that is, the object on the display monitor. In this case, the shooter has to perform some operations such as manually moving the display monitor so that the shooter can check the object, which, however, may cause the camera body to jiggle.
Therefore, a technique of constantly and automatically turning the display monitor toward the shooter independently of the move of the video camera has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-275019, for example). Specifically, this technique is for sensing a rotation angle and a rotational angular speed in response to an operation of moving the video camera by the shooter, and based on the sensed rotation angle and the sensed rotational angular speed, rotationally moving the display monitor in an eye gaze direction of the shooter.
Here, for example, it is assumed that the video camera is fixed on a tripod stand and the like and the shooter himself slightly enters a shooting range of the camera to shoot the shooter as the object. In the case of such a shooting, the display monitor is turned toward the object in order to check the shot image by the shooter himself. Then, the shooter performs the shooting while checking the shot image displayed on the display monitor.
However, the above described conventional technique can rotationally move the display monitor in response to the operation of moving the video camera, however, cannot rotate the display monitor to be turned toward the object in response to the motion of the object (shooter). Hence, when the object moves to a corner of angle of view within the shooting range, the object (shooter) may not be able to easily check the shot image. In other words, the above described conventional technique is not effective in the case where the video camera is fixed and the shooter himself enters the shooting range of the camera to shoot the shooter as the object.
In addition, the above described shooting can be performed by a method of controlling a shooting direction of the video camera by mounting the video camera on a camera platform and remotely operating the camera platform. However, this method requires the operation of the platform and the operation of the video camera respectively, which makes the shooting operation cumbersome.